California Senator John Benoit is on the Senate Public Safety committee, where AB962 was just approved. He was on the “nay” side in a narrow 4-3 decision. This bill, as mentioned, now passes on to Senate Appropriations committee — if it gets by there, it moves to the main body for a vote.
You have heard several of us express our dissatisfaction with the bill and the negative impact it would have on our hobby/livelihood while being ineffectual in actually reducing crime. While it sometimes feels differently, we are not alone in this opinion — Senator Benoit’s office contacted us because he had written a piece recently that he thought would be of interest to our readership. His essay is now presented below:
Standing Up For The Second Amendment And Boy Scouts
By Senator John J. Benoit
Over the holiday weekend, I paused to reflect on the ideals that made our nation a beacon of freedom and the envy of the entire world. In 1776, the Founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to break away from Great Britain and begin an unprecedented experiment in self-government.
A decade after the well-armed Minutemen, militias of everyday settlers, and nascent American military beat back the greatest world power to achieve independence, the fledgling Republic would approve the Constitution and ratify the Second Amendment in the first ten amendments we cherish as the Bill of Rights.
The Second Amendment, “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” spells out a sacrosanct protection. More than a right to self-defense or to own hunting equipment, the Second Amendment is one of few safeguards against tyranny.
Landmark legislation, that I believe infringes on our Second Amendment protections, passed the Senate Public Safety Committee Tuesday on a 4-3 vote. As the Committee’s Vice Chair, I fervently oppose this attempt to chip away at the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
AB 962 would regulate the sales of handgun ammunition, effectively criminalizing the sale or transfer of more than fifty rounds per month. It then creates a cumbersome government scheme to grant ammunition vendor licenses to those who annually file their way through the red tape – for a fee of course.
Like other liberal gun laws, this will be ineffective because criminals never let the law stand in their way to begin with. I can’t see gang members lining up and paying a fee to become licensed handgun ammunition vendors. Instead, the bill will spur the black market for ammo sales.
Gun violence is a national tragedy, but disarming law-abiding citizens does not lower crime.
One unintended consequence of AB 962’s stringent requirements would limit the ability of Boy Scouts to earn the most popular merit badge, the Rifle Shooting Merit Badge. To earn this badge, Scouts are required to properly demonstrate safety procedures before firing their first round. They typically use more than 250 rounds per person per week for training and testing.
The bill defines “handgun ammunition” with a clause qualifying “notwithstanding that the ammunition may also be used in some rifles.” .22 rifle ammo can be loaded into pistols, creating a legal ambiguity that responsible organizations would be hesitant to cross. If approved, this bill will be a stepping stone towards regulating all ammo.
With these restrictions in place, the Boy Scouts could no longer buy and distribute the necessary quantity of ammo for firearms safety and shooting skills training.
Boy Scouts promote the principles of American democratic government and take pride in helping others. AB 962 tells our future military and law enforcement ranks that they’ll have to become a sharpshooter with less than two shots a day for practice. It subjects parents to criminal charges for transferring a box of ammunition to their child on the range.
The Founders endured centuries of British rule before deciding to right the “long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object.” AB 962 continues the long train of infringements on our individual Constitutional rights.
This radical legislation was narrowly passed in the Assembly and by the Senate Public Safety Committee, receiving “no” votes from all Republican legislators and a handful from across the aisle. It’s my hope that my Senate colleagues will join me in defending the rights of Californians and stop this far-reaching proposal from advancing to the Governor’s desk.
Senator John J. Benoit, a former volunteer fire captain and 31-year law enforcement veteran, is the first full-time public safety professional to serve in the State Senate since 1994. A past recipient of both the Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award (Boy Scouts of America, Three Peaks District) and Legislator of the Year Award (California Rifle and Pistol Association), he represents the 37th Senate District, which includes 18 of Riverside County’s 26 Cities. Further information regarding Senator Benoit is available on his web site at: www.sen.ca.gov/benoit.
It is easy to talk about the role of the 2nd amendment as a safeguard to enable self-defense, it takes a truly strong elected official to come forward, especially in California, and express their belief in the 2nd amendment as one of the safeguards against tyranny. Thank you for your strength, thank you for trying to protect our American traditions and our constitutionally guaranteed liberties.
At this point, I mearly wonder if Assemblyman De Leon (the author of AB962) spent as much time on creative ways of fixing the California budget as he has at trying to sneakily introduce gun control over the years, if we wouldn’t be running with a surplus, paying dividends to all California residents.
In the past this bill has died in the Appropriations committee. Please make your voice heard now…. The members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are listed here.
